Technologies

TikTok Fined $600M Over Europe’s Fears of China Surveilling People’s Data

TikTok disputes the claim it hasn’t adequately protected people’s personal data, and has said it plans to appeal.

TikTok will need to reach deep into its pockets after the Irish data watchdog hit the social video platform with a massive 530 million euro ($600 million) fine on Friday.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission charged the company with violating Europe’s strict privacy laws by not doing enough to ensure that anyone’s data transferred to China is properly protected from government surveillance. The DPC also said that if TikTok doesn’t make changes to comply with its ruling within six months, it will have to completely suspend data transfers to China.

TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that it was adequately protecting people’s personal data that could be remotely accessed by staff in China, DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement. «As a result of TikTok’s failure to undertake the necessary assessments, TikTok did not address potential access by Chinese authorities to EEA personal data under Chinese anti-terrorism, counter-espionage and other laws identified by TikTok as materially diverging from EU standards,» he added.

Read more: Best Identity Theft Protection for 2025

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, which came into effect in 2018, means that people in Europe benefit from strong privacy protections. When companies are found to be breaking the rules, they can receive fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of their annual turnover, whichever is greater. The GDPR has formed the basis of other data privacy rules around the world, including California’s Consumer Privacy Act. The intention behind these rules is to guarantee people transparency over how their data is used, and to empower them to object when it’s used in ways they don’t approve of.

In the case of TikTok and the EU, the company has said that it’s never received any specific requests for European user data from the Chinese government. It believes that the period the fine applies to precedes 2023, when it put in place a 12 billion euro data security initiative in the EU called Project Clover.

«The decision fails to fully consider these considerable data security measures,» said Christine Grahn, TikTok’s head of public policy and government relations for Europe in a statement. «We disagree with this decision and intend to appeal it in full.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 15, #1008

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 15, No. 1,008

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough, but the yellow category has some fun options in it. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Mine, all mine!

Green group hint: A part you might use to build something.

Blue group hint: Blended words.

Purple group hint: Not a cow, but close.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Greedily control.

Green group: Toothed wheels.

Blue group: Portmanteaux.

Purple group: Bull ____.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is greedily control. The four answers are bogart, corner, hog and monopolize.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is toothed wheels. The four answers are cog, gear, pinion and sprocket.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is portmanteaux. The four answers are blog, motel, smog and spork.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is bull ____. The four answers are dog, doze, frog and horn.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 15, #742

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 15, No. 742.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is fun and timely, relating to a certain big ceremony held this weekend. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Best of all

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: The envelope, please.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

RATE, RATED, DATE, DOTE, DATED, DOTED, GATE, GATES, TROD, TRODS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: